Day 7 of the Apocalypse, Gerton, NC pop. 231

New-to-Me Apocalypse Experiences

(As I learn to navigate the post-hurricane reality we are living here in our small rural community in Western North Carolina - Not in order of importance):

• Eating bear and chicken stew lovingly made by Jean, the wife of our neighbor Robert, who is a hog and wild game hunter
• Hitching a ride to our checkpoint so I could get WiFi access in a dirty banana Jeep Wrangler with a 12-inch lift, and 40-inch tires - so high off the ground I had to be lifted into it, driven by a volunteer named Mitch from Charlotte, who has been to many areas in NC over the past week, and said our community was the worst disaster he has seen.
• Being able to introduce myself as a Quaker minister to the folks from Mennonite Disaster Services
• Hitching a ride from the checkpoint to our fire department with former State Representative John Ager
• Hiking 3 miles down our mountain from our house to the fire department on roads that have been destroyed - walking under giant trees that fell over, and over fallen power lines. Noting that every single power pole up our mountain toppled over.
• Helping our 85-year-old neighbors evacuate via ATV with their cat, giant dog, and only what they could carry in their laps.
• Having every single one of our neighbors in our HOA give us access to their homes (mainly second homes) so we could raid them for supplies: food, wine, batteries, candles, chainsaws, gas, and propane.
• Having food and water rations delivered to our house (rice and bean packets courtesy of Feed the Hunger in Burlington, NC).
• Our neighbors Walter and Peter driving up from Charleston to bring us food and spend 2 nights up here - cooking for us and helping us to clear trees off our private road. Peter also donating his services to our community, as an ER doctor, for residents in need.
• Observing 99% of the people in our 231-person community walking around with open-carry firearms - even women in their 70s and 80s packing heat, due to looting and people getting squirrely because it is the Wild West here on our mountain.
• Using the clock on our stove to track how many hours we’ve run the generator for each morning and evening.
• Our “TV” time becoming sitting in camp chairs in our neighbors’ field, watching different types of helicopters fly over us.
• Keeping our bathtub filled with water in the event our propane runs out and we lose access to our well water.
• Watching my husband use a flashlight to find clothes in our master closet, while the generator is running because operating in the dark has become more familiar to him than having electricity.
• Having a military helicopter hover 20 feet above our neighbor’s house to do a wellness check, peeking through the windows and asking for a thumbs up or thumbs down re status.
• Riding in a side-by-side; riding on an ATV; driving a side-by-side - which was super fun!
• Helping to man the “checkpoint” for the one road with access into our community in an effort to turn around looters and people who just want to gawk at our disaster and take pictures.
• Spending every single night eating dinner with our neighbors, firefighter Erik and his wife Kate, who both run missions every day to evacuate people and bring food and water supplies to remote communities.
• Neighbors Sarah and Pete down the mountain baking a birthday cake for Robert, a truck driver from Alabama who brought an emergency radio tower and Wi-Fi signal to our community to use for 15 days. Robert sleeps in the truck to monitor the equipment and yesterday was his birthday.
• Hundreds of volunteers now driving in daily wanting to help, from as far away as Oklahoma - dropping off supplies, and bringing in chainsaws to help move trees off roads and houses.
• People donating their excavators and other heavy equipment to help rebuild roads.
• At least 50 truckloads of gravel delivered yesterday to help rebuild roads.
• NCDOT using rope to drop engineers into the 30-foot deep chasm that was the road connecting our HOA road to the highway - to figure out how to rebuild it.
• Having a long conversation during one of our daily community meetings at the Fire Department about what to do with all of the trash that is piling up, because there is no trash service.
• Seeing my husband become a morning person, for the first time in his life, because now we both get up at 7 am in order to turn on the generator for 2 hours. We need to carefully time powering our refrigerator and freezer so food doesn’t spoil.
• Drinking electrolytes every day as we’re getting dehydrated from hiking so many miles each day to get down the mountain to volunteer our services.